Sunflower Petals in Your Hair
by Lissy no Usagi
Summary: Oneshot, ShikaIno fluff. Shikamaru wants to give Ino a present to show that he likes her... but what? This is my first attempt at this, so please read and review!


All right, people, this is a direct counterattack to all the ShikaTema pairings out there. No, not that I mind it, it's just that there aren't nearly enough ShikaIno stories! Honestly! This is, to tell you the truth, the first time I've ever really tried writing hetero (blergghh) fluff, since I'm more of a yaoi girl, but I adore this pairing. Many thanks to my buddies Sarai and my sister, who flipped when she read this XD. Now… enjoy!

**Sunflower Petals in My Hair**

Nara Shikamaru was in dire straits. Even though he was a genius with an IQ of over 200 and all that jazz, he was absolutely clueless when it came to one subject.

Girls.

Girls are, of course, an enigma to most, but they were even more so for the lazy prodigy. At first, he said he didn't like girls because he thought they were evil – he'd seen what his mom could do to his dad. After that, he wondered if he was secretly gay. After all, it seemed like everyone else was - they all knew what Sasuke and Naruto did behind closed doors (perish the thought :B). But even then, he became interested and was set on wooing Yamanaka Ino – his teammate, you know, the loud, brash, egotistical, opinionated, stubborn girl who would always beat him up for saying bad stuff about her Sasuke-kun, forever fighting with Sakura, starving herself to look prettier...

But I digress.

His straits were getting even more dire – how could he convey his feelings to her? Clueless though he was, the only solution to his predicament was to ask the equally clueless male gennins of Konoha for ideas. Dear god.

"Give her candy," Choji suggested (go figure). Shikamaru shot that down.

"She'll probably get insulted and think I was trying to get her fat or something," he said gloomily. "She's on a diet, remember?"

"Serenade her with something!" Lee said, striking a pose.

"Got a crap singing voice."

"Write your name and hers under an umbrella on a wall somewhere," Kiba suggested. (A/N: This is the Japanese equivalent of writing two names in a heart, just so you know.)

"Senseless vandalism."

"Buy her something nice," Sasuke said.

"Can't. Too poor."

"….How about flowers?" Naruto asked as a last resort.

"She _works_ at a flower shop, you retard," Shikamaru snorted. "Why would she need something that she's around all day?"

"It was just a suggestion," Naruto pouted. "You're such a miserable ass! Why are you so sure that she'll reject you before you even try?"

"Because I'll probably be right…" He heaved a sigh, getting up. "But whatever. That option seems to be the only real one I've got." He smacked his forehead and groaned. "I'm really not looking forward to this… I'll be picking flowers in a field somewhere since I'm too cheap to buy any. See ya."

"Go for it!" Naruto and Kiba cheered.

/\\\\

Shikamaru made his way to the fields, looking for flowers on the way. Being the guy that he was, he wasn't about to stop and ask for directions, but he managed to find his way there. He came to a deserted forest clearing with some half-decent sunflowers. Unfortunately, they did not want to go quietly.

"Damn it! Come loose, damn you!" he growled, grappling with a particularly thorny one. He twisted the stem, but it still didn't break loose. He lost his temper and started shaking it. The sunflower retaliated by showering him all over with stray seeds and petals. Sunflower one, Shikamaru zero.

"Screw this," he muttered, whipping out a kunai and slicing neatly through the stem. The volatile blossom fell with a small thud onto the ground. He soon followed suit.

"Is she even worth it?" he muttered. His conscience popped up out of nowhere and slapped him.

"Of course she is, you twit!" it bellowed. "You like this girl, don't you!"

"Well, yeah, but – "

"But, my ass! You're gonna give her this flower even if it kills you!" it yelled, reminding Shikamaru strangely of his mother. It disappeared with a small poof, leaving him all alone with his thoughts.

"What a pain in the ass," he sighed. "I'm not safe even from my own conscience…"

Okay, so the first part – getting a present – had been easy (relatively speaking). Now came the hard part, the one that he'd been dreading the most – how to give it to Ino.

_Be cool_, he thought to himself. _Just – just handle this like another mission, that's all…_

He got up and started pacing back and forth, trying to think of something nice to say when he went to (gulp) give his flowers to her.

"So, uh… I saw this flower, and I didn't really like it… but I thought you would because this flower is pretty… and – and you're pretty too…" he said aloud lamely. "Erm… N-not that I'm saying anything bad about your looks, comparing them to this flower but – "

He ground his teeth in frustration. "Goddamn it! I just sound retarded!"

"Even more so than usual, might I add," a voice came from behind him. Fearing the worst, he turned around to see who it was… and damn near passed out. Of course, it was Ino and she'd heard the whole thing.

"Geh! Ino! W-what are you doing here?" he stammered, immediately shoving the flower behind his back. "Er – get lost!"

Ino folded her arms and frowned. "That's nice. And to think I was worried enough to come and find you! It's getting late, you know…"

"Uh… it is?" He hadn't noticed.

"You've got sunflower petals in your hair," she pointed out. "What have you been doing out here anyways? Wrestling with them?"

Ouch. She was dead on.

"Err – none of your business," he said lamely. His mad, crazy supergenius brain was whirring away like crazy, trying to bail himself out of this situation. He cleared his throat.

"S-say, Ino – could I ask you something…?"

"About what?" she prompted innocently. He turned red.

"Um – well, what's a good gift to – to give to a g-girl?" he asked awkwardly, looking away. He was in waaaay too deep now.

_Please, God, let me get out of this alive_, he thought desperately.

"I can't believe you don't know the best way to win a girl's heart is with flowers!" she declared, putting her hands on her hips. "Geez, Shikamaru!"

She certainly wasn't expecting him to sullenly offer her the sunflower in his hand.

"Here," he said gruffly, his blush intensifying. "T-this is for you. But I didn't know if you'd like it or not, since you work at the flower shop and all…"

He felt a rap on his head. "Ow! What are you –"

"You idiot," Ino grinned. "It's _because_ I love flowers that I work at the flower shop."

"I thought it was just because your family owns it," he said pointedly. She smacked him again.

"That isn't the point here!" she said to him sternly. "The point is, I love flowers, and besides…"

She trailed off, blushing. He looked up at her again and saw that she was just as awkward as he was. This was a good sign. He offered the sunflower again with a shy little grin.

"Well, this is for you," he said. "And… I really like you…"

Crap! He hadn't meant to say that! There was still the chance that she didn't hear him, but….

She took it from his fingers gently. Well, now that he'd given it to her his mission was complete. Woo hoo! But what to do about this awkward silence?

...cricket cricket...

The pair stood there awkwardly, looking at everywhere but the other. Feeling the need to say something witty to break the ice, he heard Ino say something.

"What was that again, sorry?" he asked, inadvertently leaning closer.

"I said THANK YOU!" she shouted in his ear.

"Agh!"

His ears ringing, Shikamaru looked at her, relieved to see that she was beaming.

"So!" she said, turning around, "are you just going to stand there all night, or are you going to walk me home like a proper boyfriend?"

He gaped. "Buh – boyfriend?"

That one word hit him like a whole load of Kage Bunshins. Boyfriend? Where did _that_ come from?

She smirked. "Of course! It's a mutual relationship, so now we have to do things that couples are supposed to do!"

She started walking off, humming and waving the sunflower around.

He blinked. "Wait – by 'mutual', you mean – "

"Come on! It's getting dark!"

With a start, he ran after her.

"Ino! Wait up!" he called, running and catching her hand.

The two of them made their way back to Konoha as the sun was setting.

/\\\\

"Pay up, Kiba!" Naruto said triumphantly the next day, holding out his hand. "I told you they'd get together!"

"Yeah, yeah, shut up."

Tha End

Over and done with! Please don't shoot me, but read and reviewwwwwww! XD Oh god, I KNOW that the line that Shikamaru's practicing is from Shrek… b-but I neeeeeeded it! Let the poor writer get over her writer's block! .. Argh, in any case, thank yeeeew for reading my work! If you liked it, leave a glowing review so that I may be spurred on to write more! - Lissy


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